"It's siding with common sense. My eight year old ought to be able to work this out - you shouldn't start slamming on the brakes when the economy is barely growing."

The timing of cuts isn't a technical question at all - it is central to the whole debate. Cutting before the private sector is able to pick up the slack is lunacy, it is not an issue of minor technical importance.

If Nick's child can work that out, you have to wonder what has changed his father's mind, with growth for the last quarter at 1.1% - a good result and one not bettered since 1999 - but hardly evidence that the economy has lifted off again, given that growth in the first quarter was 0.3%. The IoD don't think that this level can be maintained and I do have to point out that this growth was achieved under the policies set out by the last government, not the current incumbents. The third quarter figures will be most revealing.

But don't rely on my dubious grasp of economics, let's take the views of a Nobel prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz

"If Europe goes down the route it’s going, which is austerity measures, the result will be a growth slowdown, which will mean tax revenues will go down... When that happens, markets will react. This austerity approach poses a great deal of risk."

Mr Stiglitz said historical evidence showed that increased state spending helped economies emerge from recession. He added that the example of Ireland showedthat austerity leads to declining output, rising unemployment and high bond spreads, instead of renewed investment. "I feel sorry for the Irish people who have to suffer from this policy... but it doesn't have global or European consequences. If the UK, Germany or other countries do it, then it is going to have systemic consequences for Europe and the whole world."

And then there is Clegg's glib statement about not letting your children pay your debts, building on his inane comparison of the British economy with the household budget. Neither comparison works. Did Churchill and Attlee consider at the start of World War Two that Britain would be paying the debt down until 2006? As Ed Miliband pointed out, in 1945, Attlee didn't think to hold back for better financial weather, he got on with building the welfare state that this current government seeks to dismantle.